Keep up with Lauren as she serves a mission in Tempe, Arizona for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Monday, September 23, 2013

Monday, September 23, 2013 - 95 Degrees is Fall Weather

I love how much the Lord's hand is in everything we do. Earlier this week we were going to contact someone in our plans and we "happened" to run into this less-active lady we had been trying to meet on the street. She had been just going on a walk with her nephew to go visit her parents who "happened" to not be home when we went over so she was on her way home. We were then able to go into her house and talk with her and we invited her to church which she told us her concerns. We were then able to address them and set up an action plan with her so she could come to church. She told us right before we were leaving she didn't think it was coincidence she had been walking when we started to talk with her. The Lord cares about each one of us and sets forth into place the things we need most. Since we've been in this area we have seen the miracles of people letting us into their homes who the ward has told us hasn't opened the door for them or they've never been able to contact them for months. Never give up on anyone! You never know when it's their time.

This week we went on exchanges with the Sister Training Leaders. Our Sister Training Leaders are Spanish speaking and I went to their area. Since I took nada Espanol in High School I was like well, I don't know anything so I'll just let you take over in the Spanish lessons! We had Spanish study and it was amazing to me how similar Spanish is to English and how much easier it was than German (I should have taken Spanish instead of German in High School...) We were able to teach one of their investigators, Angleica. She feels the Holy Ghost strongly in her life, but she just doesn't have the fullness of the Gospel. Almost everything she was saying she believes in, we believe in. She does love to talk though! The impression I received when we walked into the lesson was to just listen to what she said and to testify. It ended up being exactly what she needed. We also taught a recent convert lesson which was all in Spanish. That was fun to just sit back and have no idea what was going on. It was a nice break from our area and to go to another area and get to meet the people there. I have to say it's the best part of exchanges!

One of our Bishops gave us a referral on Friday! We tried to contact her, but she wasn't home. We're going to try again today to see if we'll be able to get a hold of her. I love this area and these wards we have. The members are great and they really are trying to do missionary work. The member visits we've been doing have been spiritually powerful. We've been giving them Elder Andersen's Apostolic Promise and we've been seeing the miracles because of it. I can feel we're about to start seeing even more miracles these next couple of weeks. Transfers are in a week. I can't believe how fast these 6 weeks have gone by. Time does just keep on getting faster and faster. I feel like there's not enough hours in the day to get everything done we need to. It's been nice to be so busy though. Yesterday, Sunday, was one of the busiest Sunday's of my life (what ever happened to "Sunday's are a day of rest?"). We had meetings every half hour from 7:30am-9 and then church from 10:30-5. We cover two buildings so we were going back and forth between the two buildings. I think we use more miles on Sunday than any other day... We were also asked to speak at a youth fireside for one of our wards. We were late because of an appointment we had right after dinner..oops. Good thing we weren't the entire hour! They asked us to speak on the 21 Day Promise (follow up for the family- how is it going? Have you actually started it yet?) and to motivate the youth to share the Gospel. It was a great experience to speak to them and to get to know the youth in that ward a little bit better. I am continually amazed how much I actually do remember names with faces and can match them to their respective families. I know it's the mantle of the calling!

Saturday night we were able to have a Church tour with one of our investigators, Carl. We were hoping to resolve some of his concerns about coming to church. He seemed to feel a little bit more comfortable with our church and he really likes learning about Joseph Smith. We taught him the Restoration while we walked through the building. At the end we watched The Restoration video and the spirit was very powerful. In his prayer Carl said "maybe even I might be a part of this church one day." We can see the progress he's made since we started teaching him. He didn't come to church on Sunday because he already had plans, but we're going to still continue to teach him this week and he said he'd come this coming Sunday. Brad, our other investigator, has been coming to church every Sunday but we still haven't been able to set up an appointment with them because they're so busy. Hopefully they won't cancel the appointment for this Tuesday!

It's so funny to me to see how much BYU Pride there is out here; i.e. lawns painted with the Y, BYU flags, tail-gating parties, and everyone running around in blue and white. We know with one of our Bishops to not drop off the progress record after 7pm on Saturday nights!

This week I finished the Book of Mormon,focusing on the Atonement. I love how much the Atonement is in the Book of Mormon. I have learned so much the past few months studying the Book of Mormon this way. I feel I know my Savior just a little bit better, it draws me closer to Christ. This morning I was studying how to ask inspired questions. An activity I had started doing was to go through the Gospels and 3 Nephi and write down all of the questions Christ asks. Then I compare them to the questions I usually ask and then write down new questions I can ask. It's been a neat experience to go through the Bible this way and to help me improve on asking heaven sent questions. I am so grateful for this time to improve myself and become more like Christ. He is our ultimate example, He is who I want to be like.